Work

I have 3 objectives to meet -
1. Provide training for child frriendly schools
2. Work with the Inspection team here in the province and provide training
3. Support the School directors with management training

So after 3 weeks what have I managed?
1.CFS training and such issues are unheard of here as you can see from this picture.  This was a celebration for World Teacher Day. What a good idea-why does'nt the UK celebrate this?

However, there was nothing friendly about the 3 1/2 hours these pupils stood in the sun and 30+ temps while the speeches were made.
Yesterday I met a school director who told me that in Sept he had 80 grade 1 (aged 6 ) children  start school with 1 teacher and 60% could not speak Khymer. There are 7 hill tribes here!

2 .I have not yet managed to meet with the inspection department as their office in the Ministry where I work is always locked. I have been told that the yearly budget for inspections which began in Sept has already been spent so they cannot do any more! Everyone here is also very busy with the soya bean harvest, another reason to stay at home.

3.There are 3 districts I shall be working in and it has taken me this long to meet the District Education Officers - many schools I visit are shut and the teachers have gone home. They get little pay and never on time and no-one keeps a check on absenteeism.
I want to do a workshop with them to find out what they perceive as the problems - but they will not come without being paid. VSO believe in sharing skills not paying for staff to attend training - if anyone pays it should be the Ministry. So an interesting challenge in the next few months.Although we are trying to get some funding from an Italian NGO which may make my work a little easier.

This is a school I visited at 10am in the morning, about 200 children from grade 1-4 and no teachers in sight. Lots of pigs, dogs, etc, and the children were very happy playing and chatting. Eventually, I found 2 teachers asleep (which people do a lot of here - a combination of the heat and mal-nutrition)  on a row of desks each inside one of the classrooms. When they woke they were not at all embarrassed. Just seemed pleased to see visitors.

Janet Catchpole is fundraising for Voluntary Service Overseas

Janet Catchpole is fundraising for Voluntary Service Overseas

First Khymer Wedding

Well after only two weeks in  Cambodia we were invited to our first wedding. We had been informed about the importance of weddings here and the etiquette so here goes.
Firstly the wedding season runs from November to March- during the cooler months! Ha Ha
Secondly, you cannot refuse - its very rude and you still have to pay!
Thirdly, the women really go to town on the outfits and make up here.
Fourthly, they start early from 4am with loudspeakers to announce and awful music.
And they drink a lot of alcohol which you cannot refuse either!
So  this was our experience -
the very flashy invitation in red and gold was from my boss, the Director of Education in Ratanakiri. We rarely see her so we knew how important it was when she came to deliver it personally. Quite a challenge for me with my limited skills. There is no need to reply as apart from illness everyone goes.
Firstly I had to have a new outfit, the clothes I had bought from the UK were not flashy enough.
So the wife of the Dutchman I work with and I met in the market to have outfits made. she went all out glittery but with true British reserve I went for the most simple and plain fabric I could find which was not easy. We were measured and discussed in full view of the market of course and agreed to go back in one week.I paid $10 deposit  which was half the cost.
On the Saturday at 8.30am after an electricity cut for 2 days  for final trying and paying. We communicated via a few words of Khymer from me and hand signals from her. I agreed I would press it at home when the elect. came back.
That afternoon Dave and I went to the airfield here (still complete with windsock and terminal buildings and even a fire engine) sadly no planes for over one year. anyway we practised me riding side saddle for my entry to the wedding and then me driving and Dave as the passenger so he could drink more.
The next day the three VSO females went with one of the female translators to the beauty parlour. This was Sunday afternoon at 3pm. The beauty parlour turned out to be a shack tacked on the end of the market. Why was I not surprised! There is only the market to go here. The place was really busy and I could write a book about my experience that afternoon. So here is the edited version, I had planned to have nails painted and possibly makeup. I was given small bowls to soak my toes and hands in. But they were soon forgotten and I was called to the makeup chair. I pleaded with Sereyden to have only natural makeup - but the next thing was the young girl got a razor blade and proceeded to eliminate my eyebrows and then my whole face was shaved!!!
the next stage was thick makeup, false eyelashes, heavy painted eyebrows and the whole works. this happens in the open shop and everyone is watching the barang in the chair.
So late home and dark with no helmet on my glittery hair I just have time to change and off we go.
The wedding was different! You have to arrive late and you have to pay - $20 for us which is a lot here. You wait until a table of 10 is complete then you are seated and the food is served. We had 7 courses including BBQ duck which seemed raw, pickled vegetables, fish soup and stewed chicken plus lots of rice. There was lots of drinking and only whisky and beer to choose from. After the meal everyone has to either dance or drink toasts. We chose to dance but really only the men dance, the women seemed very unconcerned about dancing. You dance around a table covered in fruit and the moves look easy but of course are not!! When it got too complicated we stopped but then everyone wanted to drink with us so we had to start dancing again!!

The VSO team



The heavy make-up

 We weaved our way home at 11pm watched by the police who are not at all bothered about drink driving just who was there - it was a very important wedding so almost 1000 people there and the police were all dressed in their best costumes.

Waiting for 10 people so we can go in

Wedding outfits

The bride and groom plus myself, Lucy from the Phillipines and her husband Yasser from Pakistan

Week one - only103 to go

Our first week in Ratanakiri (this means gem mountain in Khymer)

Our new home- well just the upstairs.

After an exhausting journey and stressful arrival we woke at 6am to find what I can only describe as a squatter hut attached to the fence one meter from our house and the family are cooking on charcoal pots outside and chattering loudly.

View from bedroom window

So up we get and after a minimal breakfast we go off to the market on the moto – more about that later too!

Trying to find cleaning materials was difficult but we managed and got fruit and bread.

Dave scrubbed the bathroom with bleach and I cleaned the kitchen, swept floors with a soft bristle broom; oh for a vacuum cleaner here as it’s so dusty. In the pm a couple of other NGOs arrived one with a huge bag of longans. I like them, Dave not too keen, he says he does not like smelly fruit.

In the afternoon we went for a ride on the moto around the lake in town and explored a little and then got a text inviting us to sunset snacks not far from us ( well nowhere is far from here the town is about twice the size of Framlingham.

My moto in the garden downstairs plus the awful no gears VSO bike!

First day…

Up with the family and the cockerels at 5.45am so at least I could not oversleep for work today. Nervous about riding the moto to work on my own but I memorised the way and it was fine. I met Myrko the Dutchman and another VSO working in Education and Narin the translator that we share, then I hopped – well straggled my leg over to ride pillion with him to a school about 35k away towards Vietnam. A small school only 2 classrooms and teaches grade 1 – 4 however, the children are indigenous and do not speak Khymer and here if you do not pass each grade or start school late you stay down. So there were about 4 boys who looked about 13/14 still in with the grade 1 and this is not unusual and yet there is no curriculum suited to their needs so most drop out as soon as they can and rarely stay to go to the next school at grade 5 level. You can be a teacher at a school like this as long as you have a grade 9 certificate to say you passed that level.

I was asked if I wanted to make my own way back on the moto and being the only female I had to say yes. It was fine until 34.5k later and I could not find my way to the office whichever way I tried. Eventually I gave up and had to ring Narin. I was 300yards from the office, they were in the coffee shop ( I use this term loosely as it was a bamboo shack) and they had seen me driving round and thought I was doing more practising. On the way home I got stopped by the police. He made me stop my bike, get off and then told me to go another road as this was blocked. Then proceed to laugh with his mates about my inadequacies of handling a moto. All before lunch so luckily I had a quiet afternoon in the office.

Riding pillion.

The women here all ride side-saddle and never hold on to anything.

Cambodian men riding pillion can hold onto any part of their male drivers.

Women cannot touch any part of their male driver whilst riding pillion even if it is their husband.

Only the driver is supposed to wear a helmet – but only the westerners wear them really.

You can have at least 6/7 on a moto. As soon as children can sit up they are on motos.

Signalling left does not mean you are going left.

Even though you are meant to drive on the right you can and do use any part of the road you want to.

So you can see that first thing on Monday morning riding that distance pillion with a male translator was an experience. However, the scenery was magnificent and this really is a beautiful place.

My work hours are 7.30-11.30am and 2-5pm.

Tuesday I spent getting to know my way round the hot, dusty, dirty office in the department for the Ministry of Education. When I am not quite so new it will get a tidy and a clean-up.

Wednesday was another school visit and I played hookey in the pm and went to the bank to get my ATM card –it took over an hour and a half.

Thursday back to the school we visited on Monday for a World Teacher Day ceremony which was very nice and simple and then we played a game with the children.

Playng the circle game

In the afternoon I had my first language lesson and I learnt that she had not prepared anything but wanted to know what I wanted to learn!! So I leant to ask the mother below us if I could use the washing machine – which worked! Also how to ask for things in the market – which was not so easy! I have problems understanding the cost of items as 100 is mapon and 1000 is maroy which in local dialect sounds the same to me.

Being on the top table

Friday was a holiday to celebrate Kings Coronation. We were invited by the family to have a picnic by the lake but we declined and went to the market to buy food and more storage containers as everything has to be kept sealed. We also need coat hangers and all sorts of necessary basic stuff.

In the evening which is after 5pm in Khymer time we went to one of the 3 relative western restaurants where all the NGOs meet up each week. There are about 15 in total of all nationalities but English is the language in use luckily. We ordered drinks, dave a beer and me a lime juice when an Aussie arrived and announced he had just got engaged to a local girl and without asking ordered a round of tequila shots with salt and lemon and that was it we had to drink up. Yuk!! Then get on the moto in the dark ( dark by 5.30pm here and weave our way home – late by standards here as it was 8pm. Then we ate on the balcony still but it was so cold, the temp dropped to below 25 for the first time and we shivered and had to put on warmer long sleeved clothes.

Dave reading on the balcony.

Last training week.

Our last week of training was very hectic. I had an upset tummy and David had to go to the village for homestay on his own. We were prepared for the worst-sleeping above the cows, sharing a bed and potty with the family, indescribable food. All of which were stories we heard from other volunteers. In the end it was not that bad and he had a bed to himself although the father slept on the floor in the same room. There were two children one of which was 17 and could speak English and the little girl(8) wanted to hold his hand all the time……….Something even I cannot do here as Cambodians do not like shows of physical contact at all. He said it was a lonely 24 hours though.

Then it was straight into the moto training which lasted a day and was tough going with a “gippy” tummy.

Rules of the road I am trying to come to terms with –

• Concentrate only on what is in front of you.

• You can use any part of the road even going on the wrong side.

• Give way to traffic coming on the roundabout.

• Any vehicle bigger than you has right of way.

• It is illegal to drive with lights during the day.

• It is not illegal to drive at night without lights.

• Use your horn a lot, once to warn and continuous to keep going.

• Drive on the right. Or on the left or in the middle.

• When you want to turn onto another road go across the road when you see a space and drive on the wrong side of the road until you turn.

• Always beware of cows and dogs who wander in the road at any time.

Then we were packed up and on the bus to Phnom Penh where I had 3 hectic days of meetings and a visit to the doctor for some anti-biotics. The up side of this is I am losing weight fast. David had to visit the dentist which he also said was really good. He also had to shop and haggle in the market for sheets, towels, pillows, kitchenware and a few luxuries such as a toaster, 3 cans of baked beans and some pasta.

On Saturday we were collected from the guesthouse at 5.30am. We went by mini-bus and had many stops, breakfast and lunch where therebwere toilets. A puncture stop ( see picture below) and once for nearly an hour to load an indigenous family of 14 plus all their belongings including a puppy in a sack tied with string. As tere were only 6 seats id did not matter they just piled in and it took the time to string all their stuff outside. We arrived in Ban Lung at 5pm. Hot, tired and the last stretch of dirt road is quite slow and tough going.

Our new home.

We were dropped off at our new home only to find the landlord was still working in the bathroom fixing the shower in and there was no electricity! To make matters worse the son-in-law wanted to talk to us and practice his English………… we were so tired that night but the next day was much better. We went on the moto to the market and bought cleaning products and some food. After siesta we went for a ride on the moto round the lake and to watch the sun set and were just about to cook a meal when we got a call and were invited out for sunset snacks. It turns out to be the home of another VSO volunteer who works with the ethnic miniority on trying to keep their beautiful volcanic crater lake sustainable. She comes from East Bergholt and is a keen mountain biker! She was thrilled to hear Dave could mend bikes and we have her bike in the spare room at the moment as he is fixing the gears.

Week 3 of language training

No more learning words this week it's sentences and long ones! It's tough going but in a strange way we quite enjoy it.We had an amazing time on Friday when we went to the local Temple (Wat) for the PBen Chum festival which is the time to respect your ancestors and bring gifts of food and drink to the  temple. We went with our language teacher and were asked by the monks to stay and eat as their guests.

The chief monk served us himself and made sure we had water. it was all rather difficult for us as the food had been given by the people and after us the poor and then the beggars were allowed to eat. However we were assured that the Wat was honoured that us "Barangs" had chosen to visit them on such an auspicious day. Some of the food was good - as you can imagine I was very selective!


Sitting on the roof of the boat.

 On Saturday we organized a river trip ( against the VSO risk assessment policy) for the day to explore part of the Mekong river. We left at 8am and travelled slowly upstream in this "tub" for about an hour to visit an island village.


Village from the shore

We had been told to bring sweets and balloons for the children as they have so little. Actually they have nothing! Dave was brilliant with the children and played games about giving the balloons out.

 The children then showed us round the village and the Chief Elder came to talk to us. It is a very low-lying island and if the water rises too high in the wet season the government will move them to higher ground but this year there has not been enough rain.

Village school aka cartshed

A typical village home

This is the village school and school is supposed to have started already so I get the feeling that thesechildren do not have school at all. There were about 20 children on the island of school age.

After the island it was back on the boat for another 2 hours to lunch-stop. it was described as a resort it turned out to be a temple complex with very old stupas (graves) and some petrified monks.

Lunch was funny as the locals could not get close enough to us in order to see what we were eating and thought it was very funny that we were making sandwiches from bread, bananas, crisps and cucumbers. The Dutch had even managed to bring some cheese.

Aside. Not as funny though as when I went to the market on Saturday to buy some new sandals- the women just laughed when I asked for size 38!

After lunch we had a wonder round and I steeled myself to walk down the 201 steep steps I struggled up only to find the younger ones had gone off to take a short cut down and Kath ( a midwife from Yorkshire) and I had to find our own way out!! What gentlemen we had with us!

Back on the boat and I sat on the edge and paddled my hot feet in the Mekong whilst others slept!

 

Photo's from placement week in BanLung - our new home



The large living space leading to the verandah

We have the entire upstairs of this house.



This is the eco-lodge we stayed in- open to the elements and wildlife!



View from verandah over the garden